Bishop of Reading: ‘Evolution is God incarnate; the whole earth is God’s body’

Oct 14, 2020 by Jill

by Archbishop Cranmer:

The Rt Rev’d Olivia Graham, Bishop of Reading, has been reading a book. Perhaps she has been reading two or three. Her subject is Creation and Incarnation; her passion is global warming and biodiversity; her theological exposition is… interesting. Perhaps she needs to read another book. A different book. Or two.

The video of her teaching is a mere six minutes long, so you may wish to hear her words for yourself, because they are at best theologically confusing; at worst they are heresy. But we don’t like to talk of ‘heresy’ any more, because it isn’t very loving; it’s just not tolerant or inclusive. So let’s go with confusing. She does exhort reflection on the questions arising from her talk – “either alone or with other people” – so let’s view this analysis as part of that process, which you can do alone or in the chat thread beneath.

Bishop Olivia is absolutely right to say that “environmental concern isn’t simply a fringe interest for the usual suspects” (who are they?), and that it has an important place in Christian discipleship because we are called to be good stewards. And she pivots from the ‘Logos’ of St John to the ‘dominion’ of Genesis, alluding to the tensions between exploitation and stewardship and exhorting the papal encyclical Laudato Si, which “contains some rich theology”.

Incarnation, she says, began 14 billion years ago with the ‘Big Bang’, when “God poured God’s self into the emerging universe”. From this she posits that “the whole earth is God’s body”, and “everything, every person, all that happens is created, sustained and sanctified: every act of evolving nature is the self-expression of God”. She concludes: “Evolution is not only of God, but is God incarnate.”

“So we might want to ponder…”

Read here

See also: On bishops, creation and the environment, by Ian Paul, Psephizo

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